Cooking Recycling last night's dinner?

[piratesmate]

We're not a family who refuses to eat leftovers in their "original" form. But I like to try different things, instead of always serving the same 6 meals, KWIM? This past week I came up with a couple new things I thought I'd share. I'm hoping that some of you will share ways you recycle your leftovers!

Over the weekend DH & I celebrated our 33rd anniversary. On Saturday he took me out for Indian food, which was wonderful! On Sunday I made his favorite mean of steak & shrimp on the grill. He always buys more steak than we need (his excuse is that DS might stop in ) And I always marinate the entire 2lb bag of shrimp because DD & I love it! LOL

This time, though, he bought so much steak that we couldn't finish it off with DS's help even the 2nd night...but there wasn't enough for all of us to have a 3rd night and I didn't want to cook 2 meals. This was sirloin steak done in Boma's flank steak marinade BTW. I sliced it really thin & at an angle. I sautéed some Vidalia onions & red pepper with some garlic in EVOO. Then I added the sliced steak, a little cumin & lime juice to make fajitas. Lately we've been on a sun-dried tomato tortilla (by Wrap-Itz) kick for wraps and we used those. Delicious! I served them with a little sour cream (fake) and Mango & Peach salsa (by Santa Barbara). Quick & easy.

I had already cooked shrimp this time, so I was able to keep the marinade without cooking it first. I use a spicy orange marinade that I just tweaked from several I found online. We like to use it at the table to dip the shrimp into when they come off grill. But it drives me crazy to waste all the marinade...it just seems like a lot. I had a few shrimp leftover that I ate for lunch the next day & had saved about a cup of the marinade for dipping. Of course I didn't use it up at lunch. I'd planned a fake crab stir-fry for dinner, but didn't realize I was nearly out of the sauce I use for that. (Hoisin Garlic by Soy Vey...love that name! LOL) On a whim I tossed that last bit of marinade into the stir-fry & it turned out terrific! It was such a hit that DH said I should keep ALL the marinade next time & freeze it for our stir-fry meals.

So what kinds of things have you found new uses for?

 

[Katy Belle]

My favorite is grilled steaks and baked potatoes the first night. The 2nd night, or skip one in between, I saute some onion and green pepper in olive oil. Then chunk up the leftover baked potatoes and cut the leftover steak into strips or cubes, sprinkle on seasoning salt, heat through and enjoy. Some of us like it better than the first night!


Katy

 

[Kim1964]

Whenever we have tacos or meat sauce with a pasta, I make sure to make enough extra meat for homemade calzones the next night. Yeast, flour, oil, salt, and sugar are things I always have in the house, and I get 5 good size calzones out of the recipe (one each for the kids and me, 2 for DH). They all love them, they're always slightly different depending on what I have to throw into them, and it's frugal to boot.

 

[greeneeyes]

Leftover BBQ meatloaf makes an interesting pasta sauce, leftover rotisserie or baked chicken makes a great potpie and leftover roast or london broil makes good stir fry or beef barley soup using the recipe from Le Cellier (they use unsold steaks).

 

[MazdaUK]

I never get leftovers as DH and DS(14) go back to the kitchen and finish it unless I padlock it away I did have meatloaf and cream of spinach left one day, but even considering I cooked an 8-person meal for 3 1/2 of us, there was only enough for DH and DS(8)